Pony Ma says Tencent is ‘seriously considering’ VR enabled WeChat

Tencent CEO Pony Ma said his company would “seriously consider” the possibility of a virtual reality (VR) backed WeChat, especially given the speedy communication 5G stands to bring to the internet.

“I hear that China Telecom’s pilot 5G service here supports downloading as fast as 1.7G per second, faster than optical fiber,” Ma said in his keynote speech at the 2018 Wuzhen International Internet Conference, which opened today. “Next year’s conference may exhibit more portable VR devices,” Ma added.

Tencent has not released information regarding its plan, or release date of any new enhanced versions of WeChat.

Tencent did not immediately reply to a request for comment from TechNode, but industry observers say Tencent wants to strengthen its capabilities in the internet of things (IoT) sector.

During Tencent’s global partner conference that took place last week in Nanjing, in eastern China, the company discussed plans to expand WeChat beyond consumers to include more businesses applications.

On November 1, Tencent unveiled its new smart vehicle system with WeChat as an interface to control in-car activities by voice and mini-programs.

In May, Ma said Tencent and WeChat would serve as China’s “digital assistant,” to help accelerate technological breakthroughs and applications.